Every Tuesday and Friday morning a half-dozen elderly gentlemen meet at the St. Albert Botanic Park, roll up their sleeves and set to work.
"We're the Old Boys' Club," said a cheerful Ray Wright, who turns 80 this coming fall. Walter McKenna is also 79 but all the others are older than 80, with John Beedle clocking in at 87.
"There must be someone older than me," Beedle said looking from one volunteer to the other, but if they were, no one admitted to it. Equally interesting, though many women also volunteer at the park, none came forward to say they were 80-plus years of age.
These self-proclaimed "old boys" have brought youthful energy but also experience to the park, located on Sturgeon Road, and seem surprised that anyone else considers age important. To them, volunteering is all part of a day's work.
Beedle, a retired city public works foreman, was instrumental in designing the botanic park in 1991 and is one of the old-boys' club's longest serving volunteers.
So is Ed Toop, 81, a retired University of Alberta professor of horticulture, who has also volunteered at the garden since 1991. Initially he helped get government grants to help set up the park but has always lent his expertise in many ways and currently spends most of the winter and summer months checking on the health of the trees and pruning them when necessary. He and Beedle still check the volunteer board when they arrive at the park each week, and if need be, take a turn at weeding.
Relative newcomers are retirees Bob Wiklun, a carpenter, John Jager, a plasterer, Ray Wright, an electrician and Walter McKenna, a banker. These men take on the heavy construction work at the park. They estimate that they currently volunteer between 400 and 600 hours per year each, and their work extends into the winter too as they take on numerous building projects.
"We have time cards, believe it or not, but we don't punch a clock. But when they ring the coffee bell, we run. Most of us don't wear watches, but you cannot lose track of time, because they ring the coffee bell," Wright joked.
Since they are all 79 years of age or older, they have more expertise available to the botanic park than many businesses might have on their payroll.
"If you add up all the old 80-year-old guys we would have a few-hundred years' of experience," said Wiklun.
McKenna agreed, adding to Wiklun's thought by saying, "We're so lucky to have a finishing carpenter like Bob, a heavy-duty electrician like Ray and someone like John Jager, who can do the plastering."
Fun guys
This spring Wiklun and Wright were leaders of a team of volunteers who rebuilt the 12-foot fence between the rose garden and the cottage garden.
The work was physically laborious because, in addition to building the structure, the octogenarians had to tear down the old fence as well as numerous climbing roses that grew beside it. That meant heavy lifting and hammering but also digging in among the thorns, as the plants were moved.
"We trampled a few of the roses. They'll have to replant some of them," Wiklun said a bit sheepishly.
Nonetheless, over the winter he did a lot of the pre-construction work in his own garage, where he had the tools to do the job. On-site building at the park has been ongoing throughout the spring and early summer.
Last week there was lots of kibitzing as Wiklun held the ladder and Wright climbed up and finished the painting and staining.
"Ray's younger. He ain't going to be 80 for a couple of months so he got the job of climbing up there. I'm older, so I get to hold the ladder," Wiklun joked.
Wright explained that, like most of the men, he started volunteering at the park with his wife soon after he retired.
"Some of us, they won't let near the flowers, so I started helping with building projects. The first thing we built was park benches," he said.
"It's good camaraderie to volunteer here," said Wiklun. "In my younger years, I was too busy working to volunteer."
Staying young
Across the park, Walter McKenna and his 15-year-old grandson Connor Kreiger were busy weeding and hoeing around the dahlias.
"I grew up on a farm and I've been using a hoe since I was big enough to carry one. If I see a weed, I want to pull it. For most of us, if we see a job that needs to be done we enjoy doing it and working with other people. I guess it comes down to enjoying the environment and at the same time, being recognized as a contributor," McKenna said.
Jager and his crew of volunteers built new sidewalks this summer using leftover wire and rebar and lumber from the old torn-down fence.
"We built all the forms and nothing got wasted. We mixed the cement and poured it and that saved a lot of money because it would have been impossible to pay that much for a company to make them for us. Last year I designed and built the patio. If you look at all the volunteer work we did on the John Beedle Centre, we did more work than the general contractors," Jager said.
The St. Albert Botanic Park is totally run by volunteers, Beedle said, as he admired the handiwork of all the workers who happily toiled in the July sun.
"When we started I think we had 12 volunteers. Now I think there are 150. When people visit the park, they are impressed because it's so tidy," he said.
The work and the friendships keep them young, the men maintain, and their Old Boys' Club is always open to new members.
"Isn't that what you're supposed to do?" Wiklun asked. "Exercise keeps you alive. Besides, the Freedom 55 thing didn't let me retire with all that money I was supposed to have so I could go to the Riviera. That didn't exactly work out. That's why us old guys are here putzing around and of course, there's the friendship thing with the other old fellas. I never thought I'd be a volunteer, but it's six years later, and I'm still here."
